heathledgerfandomcom-20200214-history
The Joker
"You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I won't kill you, because you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever." -The Joker The Joker is a fictional character portrayed by Heath Ledger in the film The Dark Knight, the second film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. The character of Joker, first created for comic books by Jerry Robinson, Bill Finger and Bob Kane in 1940 as the archenemy of the superhero Batman, was adapted to film in 2008 by Nolan and David S. Goyer. This is the third time the character has been adapted to a live-action film.In The Dark Knight, the Joker is depicted as a maniacal criminal mastermind who terrorizes Gotham City and whose goal is to plunge it into anarchy. The Joker has been described as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy." Early Life "I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you...stranger." -The Joker to the Bank manager in the National Bank No one knows who the Joker really is. Little can be confirmed regarding his early life before he turned to a life of crime. Despite his capture, no traces could be found on his fingerprints, dental records, or DNA matches against the GCPD's databases. The Joker's own testimony, while normally quite true when it came to carrying out threats, seemed at times contradictory, and he was known to lie at times when describing past events in his life, more specifically how he got the scars of his characteristic Glasgow smile. One of his anecdotes told of an extremely abusive and alcoholic father, stating that after attacking his mother with a knife, the blade was next turned on the young man, creating his mutilated smile. The fact that the Joker later referenced his father and his hatred of him to a party guest while crashing Harvey Dent's party implies that at the very least, he did have an extremely poor relationship with his father. Another story he told stated that he once had a wife who had her face cut by enforcers of loan sharks. In a desperate effort to assure his wife that he did not care about the damage to her appearance, he took a razor to his cheeks to produce his Glasgow smile. But the disturbing image instead caused his wife to leave him, damaging his psyche. It is not revealed to what degree these stories hold truth, if any. It is possible that the Joker himself is unaware of his true origins. Some psychological profiles of The Joker, indicate that he is insane to such an extent that he literally reinvents both his own psyche and history on a daily basis. It is therefore possible that, while neither story is true, he genuinely believed them both as he told them. In a report filed by the Gotham City Police Department, there were three theories presented for the Joker's origin and identity. The first was that the Joker was an escaped patient from Arkham Asylum. However, this theory is debunked on the basis that his identity has no basis within any records. The second theory was that the Joker was a former employee of the Haley Brothers Circus, which was documented to have connections with the mob. It is reasonable to theorize that the Joker is a disgruntled former employee that had bad business with the mob. The third theory presented was that the Joker is a former soldier suffering from acute PTSD, explaining his cool demeanor and familiarity with weapons, as well as his devastating effectiveness in various forms of combat Category:Characters